Demolition of Shukhov Radio Tower Likely

The Moscow Times is reporting that the more than 90-year-old Shukhov Radio and Television Tower is "likely to be dismantled." They quote the Communications and Press Ministry's call for immediately dismantling the tower that has been in a state of disrepair for some time: "The only possible option for a solution to the problem is a two stage reconstruction and renovation of the radio tower, which stipulates in the first stage its dismantling for the conservation and preservation of elements for later restoration." Both the Culture Ministry and the great-grandson of the tower's designer, also named Vladimir Shukhov, are pushing for preservation of the structure in its current location.

The news comes two years after Vladimir Shukhov called for restoration work to begin immediately on the tower, lest "it would be simpler to order that the tower be demolished, so that it shames neither my ancestors nor our country," as he said in a news conference at the time.

Shukhov is the president of the Shukhov Tower Foundation, which describes the structure "as one of the most beautiful and prominent achievements of engineering thought, the masterpiece of engineering art." Most notably, the tower was the first, per the Foundation, to "use in construction the lattice metal shells in the form of hanging and arch-shaped overhead covers and hyperboloid towers."